The NHL has reviewed Pittsburgh Penguins forward Matt Cooke‘s hit on Norris Trophy-winning defenseman Erik Karlsson and determined that it’s not a punishable offense, according to the Ottawa Sun’s Bruce Garrioch. Ultimately, the NHL didn’t see any intent on the part of Cooke.

The incident occurred in the third period of Pittsburgh’s 4-2 victory over Ottawa on Wednesday. Cooke’s skate caught Karlsson’s leg and the 22-year-old blueliner was forced to leave the game with a lacerated Achilles tendon.

Karlsson will require surgery and might miss the remainder of the Senators’ season.

Hope Karlsson get’s back stronger than ever – Malkin did it and so can Erik.Glad to see the league isn’t pursuing anything here and sees it for what it is – an accident.

At the same time I don’t blame the Sens, their fans, or Murray for being upset and having knee-jerk reactions to the injury given Cookie’s history. I even get Chris Neil going after him unabashedly – that’s hockey, if you hurt one of our star players you pay for it. I would want Tanner Glass to do the exact same thing if that happened to Sid or whomever. Hopefully though they can see it more clearly after some of the emotions subsided.

Either way, Cooke might want to get some of that MMA training that’s en vogue these days before the third tilt between these two teams in a couple months… he’ll be marked.

Actually – a similar situation happened when PK Subban sliced up Jordan Staal. And no – neither the Pens brass nor their players behaved as immaturely as the Sens did. No one ever suggested it was anything other than bad luck – despite Subban’s terrible reputation. Nor did anyone in the organization claim Tyler Meyers took out Geno’s knee intentionally. Nor did those in charge (not fans) – claim Stekel intentionally threw a shoulder into Sid’s head. Why? Because they were accidents.

there’s no way it was intentional, glad cooke isnt being punished but man i feel bad for karlsson…the look on his face was just agonizing when i saw it live last night, he knew right away, thats gotta be a terrible feeling.

Good no call by the NHL, what should have been called was Neil later sucker punching Cooke while he’s laying on the ice. I understand there are consiquences for taking out a play but atleast drop them and fight legit not sucker punch him against the boards.

Yeah, they didnt see any intent when he scrabbled Marc Savards brain either.

Not that I think this was intentional. Its debatable, not that Cooke really deserves benefit of the doubt though. But if they couldnt find intent in the hit on Savard then there was no way they could do it here. Way too cloudy…if it wasnt Cooke no one would think its intentional.

What are you talking about? They knew what Cooke did to Savard was wrong but back then there was no rule that forbid hit’s to the end and you can’t punish someone just because they injured someone else. I don’t know if you remember or not but a couple times that same season Cooke injured Savard there were two other plays that happened exactly the same way, and neither of those players were suspended as well.

I’m not trying to condone hits to the head or any type of injury but you can’t just suspend someone because of an accident that injured someone else.

actually there were rules against elbowing, which in my opinion is what Cooke tried to do to Savard. He sticks his wing out in the videos.

And where did I say you can suspend someone because of an accident? First, there was NO ACCIDENT in the Savard hit, and second I never even said that. All I mentioned is he shouldnt get the benefit of the doubt (in the court of public opinion) because he is a repeat offender.

Cooke was a POS in Vancouver and was lucky to have Shaq ‘s personal Rehab guy in town to help him recover from a torn groin. Time to retear his groin again.He’s another Rob Moore, call Todd Burtuzzi to get him out of the game for good.

Exactly! This clown was not suspended with his wicked elbow to Savard that ended his career. The league did not want to upset Mario so the let it go. Imagine if Rinaldo had hit Crosby like this, lifting his leg and stomping on his ankle. Mario would be foaming at the mouth.

I was expecting to read these comments and see a bunch of people talk about how Cooke did this on purpose and he’s such a dirty player.. But I’m glad people are noticing his change. Mario had a long talk with him about his game and told him he needed to change. It was either he was going to change his game or he was out of Pittsburgh. Since then Cooke has changed his game and became a better player. A good no call by the league, because he did not do this on purpose. Best of luck to Erik. .

The fact that Cooke has “reformed” and this was an accident doesn’t change the fact that he shouldn’t be in the league. He ruined Savard’s career and negatively impacted his quality of life. If that happened off the ice, Cooke would be in jail.

hockinj25 - Feb 14, 2013 at 11:13 AM

Most of the things that happen during the course of a hockey game would be illegal and lead to jail.

You know I hate to see that happen to one of the great young players but intent would have been impossible to prove. It certainly looked like 80-100 other plays of the exact same action I saw just last night.

I’m also really interested to see what the recovery/rehab time will be for Karlsson…has something of this nature happened before? That skate went thru like butter and cut it in a spot, presumably fairly cleanly, that it generally doesn’t tear from. I should say that’s from what I understand and I know nothing but it seems different than most achilles tears.

lionstigersandwingsohmy - Feb 14, 2013 at 12:07 PM

My guess (and that’s all it is) is that he will be back playing sometime next season but will not be back to full speed until sometime in the 2014-2015 season.

when is the last time you ever saw a player skate into a corner or side boards to finish off a check and lift up his foot like cooke did? unless he was about to lose his balance and his left foot came down…i suppose thats possible. but like some of the other commenters, i don’t think cooke should be given the benefit of the doubt for anything. if the league doesnt think there should be a suspension, i’m okay with it. cooke is the only one that will ever know if it was intentional

sportsfreak13 - Feb 14, 2013 at 12:34 PM

Watch the TSN crew breakdown the play. They show 2 or 3 examples of similar plays in other games where the players leg comes up (like cookes) in order to pin the player against the boards. Aaron ward (ex nhl player himself) does a great job of explaining it.

i just re-watched again about ten times and having done so i can agree that it wasnt pre meditated before he went into the corner because there wasnt enough time for him to think to himself “okay i’m gonna step on the back of this guys leg”. but i am glad that this at least got some attention because cooke essentially ended marc savard’s career. cooke is lucky he’s even in the league right now

sportsfreak13 - Feb 14, 2013 at 1:43 PM

“Cooks should be lucky hes even in the league right now”. Same can be said about bertuzzi.

Poor kid, hate to see that, Cooke was once a really dirty player but I think it’s good the league is taking the high road here because I really don’t think he’s that kind of player anymore, I hate him regardless because he’s on the penguins but I respect the player he has become

MWALLUK – Way to hide behind e-mail – Kind of a Cooke move. Have another burger.

phillyphanatic77 - Feb 14, 2013 at 1:33 PM

Obviously the consensus is that there wasn’t intent on Cooke’s part, and I’d hafta agree. It’s a backbreaking loss and I, like the article says, can understand the initial outrage from Sens fans, but there’s nothing definitive in the video to support Murray’s outrage. If this had happened 2-3 years ago then maybe there would be more of a discussion surrounding Cooke’s intent. Unfortunately this play could’ve been avoided if the refs had blown it dead when the puck hit the mesh. It was an innocent mistake and they’re human but it’s another example of the striped shirts impacting the outcome of a game this season.

Ask yourself this question: If this hit was put on by any one else besides Cooke, would it be getting all this attention as a dirty play??

I think the smart ones of the group would say no.That alone should prove that the play and intent was fair and legal. I understand that the history of certain players comes into play, i get it, but the PLAY was not dirty so regardless of the player……it was clean, just unfortunate.